Author name: Michael Giberson

The Case for Allowing Negative Electricity Prices – Benedettini and Stagnaro

1 Comment / Electricity, Energy markets / By

Simona Benedettini and Carlo Stagnaro make the case for allowing negative prices in electric power markets in Europe. A few of the larger power markets in Europe allow prices to go negative, but others retain a zero price lower limit. Benedettini and Stagnaro explain both why it is reasonable, economically speaking, to allow electricity prices …

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Texas Wind Power, the Ercot Power Market, the Public Utility Commission

2 Comments / Electricity, Energy markets / By

From SNL Energy, “Texas utility regulators expect to open investigation on wind ‘cost apportionment’“: Having seen record wind output of more than 10,000 MW in March, ERCOT in the report also noted that Texas has gone well beyond its 10,000-MW capacity goal and far earlier than the 2025 target established in the state’s Public Utility Regulatory Act. …

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A Relatively Thoughful View of Libertarianism from a Progressive-liberal Perspective

2 Comments / Liberty, Politics / By

Salon has published a lot of nonsense on libertarianism (e.g., anything by Michael Lind on the topic). So it was surprising, yesterday, to find that Kim Messick’s Salon essay on libertarianism was relatively thoughtful. No perfect, by any means, just better than most progressive-liberal attempts at criticizing libertarianism. The author at least gets basic points right and would surely score higher than …

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Texans Should Pay Higher Taxes

1 Comment / Economics, Energy markets, Transportation / By

From Breitbart, “Drumbeat to raise gas tax extends to conservative event“: Texans should pay higher gasoline taxes, a Texas Tech University professor advocated at a policy conference organized by the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin on April 16. He acknowledged that how transportation dollars are spent must also be carefully considered. Generally, I’m …

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Awea Brags About Wind Energy’s Mediocre Performance

4 Comments / Electricity, Environmental policy / By

On May 2 The Hill published a column by AWEA data spinner Michael Goggin, “Wind energy protects consumers,” in which the reader is regaled by tales of great service and low, low prices provided by the wind energy industry. Sorting through the claims led me back to the AWEA blog, where among other things Goggin …

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Easy to Dream Big when You Can Spend Other People’s Money, and Really, Why else Would You Build Solar Power in Michigan?

2 Comments / Electricity, Environmental policy, Regulation / By

Crain’s Detroit Business reports: A solar power work group in Michigan is making progress discussing the possibility of expanding the current utility-sponsored solar incentive program …. But the real question is whether DTE and Consumers will voluntarily expand their programs — as environmentalists, manufacturers and solar installers have been asking the state to require for job …

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New York Attorney General Grapples to Regulate New Web-based Businesses in Old Ways

1 Comment / Economics, Law, Regulation / By

The New York Attorney General (AG) had an op-ed in the New York Times presenting a curious mix of resistance to change, insistence on regulating new things in old way, acknowledgement that web-based businesses create some value and regulators can’t always enforce rules intelligently, and sprinkled now and again with the barely disguised threat that regulators will not …

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Decarbonization Now? (no, Not Yet.)

7 Comments / Electricity, Environmental policy, Politics / By

Paul Krugman’s recent opinion column in the New York Times ran under the headline, “Salvation Gets Cheap.” At first I though Krugman was making a snarky comment on ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s claim that the ex-mayor’s work on restricting access to guns, and efforts on obesity and smoking would ensure a place in heaven. But no, Krugman …

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Price Gouging-moral Insights from Economics

1 Comment / Economics, Law, Politics, Regulation / By

Dwight Lee in the current issue of Regulation magazine offers “The Two Moralities of Outlawing Price Gouging.” In the article Lee endorsed economists’ traditional arguments against laws prohibiting price gouging, but argued efficiency claims aren’t persuasive to most people as they fail to address the moral issues raised surrounding treatment of victims of disasters. Lee wrote, “Economists’ best hope …

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Looking for Renewable Policy Certainty in All the Wrong Places

1 Comment / Electricity, Energy markets, Environmental policy, Politics / By

From EnergyWire comes the headline, “In Missouri, industry wants off the ‘solar coaster’.” (link here via Midwest Energy News). A utility rebate program authorized by voters in 2008 is making Missouri into a solar leader in the Midwest. But $175 million set aside to subsidize solar installations is [nearly] fully subscribed … and the same small …

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